Polk, James Knox

Life Span
to
Full name
James Knox Polk
Place of Birth
Burial Place
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
1
No. of Children
0
Family
Samuel Polk (father), Jane Knox (mother), Sarah Childress (wife, 1824)
Education
University of North Carolina
Occupation
Politician
Attorney or Judge
Relation to Slavery
Slaveholder
Political Parties
Democratic
Government
President
Polk Administration (1845-49)
US House of Representatives
Governor
State legislature

James Knox Polk (Congressional Biographical Directory)

Reference
POLK, James Knox, (brother of William Hawkins Polk), a Representative from Tennessee and 11th President of the United States; born near Little Sugar Creek, Mecklenburg County, N.C., November 2, 1795; moved to Tennessee in 1806 with his parents, who settled in what later became Maury County; attended the common schools and was tutored privately; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1818; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1820 and commenced practice in Columbia, Tenn.; chief clerk of the state senate 1821-1823; member of the state house of representatives 1823-1825; elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth through the Twenty-fourth Congresses and reelected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1825-March 3, 1839); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Twenty-third Congress); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses); did not seek renomination in 1838 having become a candidate for governor; governor of Tennessee 1839-1841; elected as a Democrat as President of the United States in 1844; inaugurated on March 4, 1845, and served until March 3, 1849; declined to be a candidate for renomination; died in Nashville, Tenn., June 15, 1849; interment within the grounds of the state capitol.
“Polk, James Knox,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000409.
Chicago Style Entry Link
Bergeron, Paul H. The Presidency of James K. Polk. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1987. view record
Cutler, Wayne. "Jackson, Polk, and Johnson: Defenders of the Moral Economy." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 54, no. 3 (1995): 178-189. view record
Dillon, Merton L. "Polk, Expansionism, and Morality." Reviews in American History 2, no. 3 (1974): 389-394. view record
Dusinberre, William. Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. view record
Gilley, B. H. "'Polk's War' and the Louisiana Press." Louisiana History 20, no. 1 (1979): 5-24. view record
Graebner, Norman A. "Lessons of the Mexican War." Pacific Historical Review 47, no. 3 (1978): 325-342. view record
Graebner, Norman A. "The Mexican War: A Study in Causation." Pacific Historical Review 49, no. 3 (1980): 405-426. view record
Klassen, Teri. "Polk's Fancy: Quiltmaking, Patriotism, and Gender in the Mexican War Era." Uncoverings 27 (2006): 59-89. view record
Lee, Jr., Ronald C. "Justifying Empire: Pericles, Polk, and a Dilemma of Democratic Leadership." Polity 34, no. 4 (2002): 503-531.  view record
Neely, Mark E., Jr. "War and Partisanship: What Lincoln Learned from James K. Polk." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 74, no. 3 (1981): 199-216. view record
Nelson, Anna Kasten. "Secret Agents and Security Leaks: President Polk and the Mexican War." Journalism Quarterly 52, no. 1 (1975): 9-14. view record
Polk, James K. Polk: The Diary of a President, 1845-1849, Covering the Mexican War, the Acquisition of Oregon, and the Conquest of California and the Southwest.  Edited by Allan Nevins.  New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929. view record
Schroeder, John H. Mr. Polk's War: American Opposition and Dissent, 1846-1848. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. view record
Seigenthaler, John. James K. Polk. New York: Times Books, 2004. view record
Shattan, Joseph. "One-Term Wonder." The American Spectator 29 (October 1996): 32-35. view record
Stenberg, Richard R. "Failure of Polk's Mexican War Intrigue of 1845." Pacific Historical Review 4 (March 1935): 39-68. view record
Stenberg, Richard R. "Polk and Fremont, 1845-1846." Pacific Historical Review 7, no. 3 (1938): 211-227. view record
Winders, Richard Bruce. Mr. Polk's Army: The American Military Experience in the Mexican War. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Polk, James Knox," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/6415.